Some drug abuse statistics are down across the country, while others, particular prescription drugs among teens and young adults, are rising. Most - unfortunately, not all - abusers of individual substances survive long enough to handle their addictions. But for many of those who flirt with the deadly pick-and-mix game, drug rehab will never be an option.



Law enforcement and emergency medicine workers are encountering an increasing number of victims of multiple-drug cocktails, various exotic and dangerous combinations that, when combined, can bring on sudden and fatal loss of breathing, heart beat, or brain function. Illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, marijuana and ecstasy, commonly treated as single addictions at drug rehab centers, are being dangerously combined with other drugs more often than ever before.

Pain killers such as methadone, OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet and other prescription opioids and tranquilizers, mood altering psychiatric drugs, and the real kicker, alcohol, are finding their way into the deadly recipes. Alcohol, consumed with any of the drugs that depress the central nervous system, can mean a trip to an emergency ward or an early grave. If one survives such an episode, a lengthy stay in alcohol and drug rehab is the only sensible next step.

Some people blame the growing popularity for picking multiple drugs off a menu on the proliferation of prescription drugs in recent years. A younger generation has been raised to think that prescription drugs must be okay since they’re from the doctor, and everyone they know is taking a prescription drug for something. What they aren’t told is that tens of thousands of people are in rehab programs trying to overcome their prescription drug addiction, and thousands more are dying by combining prescription drugs, illicit street drugs, and usually alcohol.

Most younger people playing with drugs, and especially the multiple drug game, aren’t told the truth about addiction, brain damage, and sudden death. Many also have the idea that anyone with a decent amount of self-control and will-power can just stop if they really want to.

Nothing is further from the truth. To overcome the hell of drug addiction and the perils of mixing alcohol and multiple drugs, one doesn’t just walk away from the habit to the nearest drug rehab center. Just making the decision to get out of the drug environment and into rehab can require the help of professional drug rehab counselors and intervention specialists.

Once that decision is made, they often need a medically supervised drug detox program as their next step, then months of intensive drug rehab and possibly years of strong, steady support from friends and family.

And that’s just for those lucky ones who stay alive long enough to make the decision and get started. If you know someone who is in over their heads with drugs and alcohol, realize they want to recover their lives no matter what they say. Help them any way you can to make the transition into a drug rehab program before it’s too late.